FOOTBALL: Lewis Mills hires new head coach

BURLINGTON >> Lewis Mills has found their coach. Jose Santana, previously the running backs coach for the Spartans has been promoted to the vacant spot last occupied by Greg Todd who resigned in Novemeber.

Santana, a Windsor native, said he has been around football for the majority of his life.

"I have been coaching for 24 years," Santana said. "After coaching for four years at Becker College in Worcester, Massechusetts, I decided it was time to come back home."

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Santana went on to be the assistant head coach at Canton High school for one year until a serious event took place.

"After one year, the Canton head coach at the time resigned," Santana said. "The only thing he did wrong was that he said all of the coaches were resigning with him and it left me in an awkward position."

After what transpired, Todd and Santana began talking.

"He (Greg Todd) said it is a fairly new program, i'm looking for experienced coaches," Santana said, "and he said you could probably be a head coach at the high school level right now. With that said I was looking for a challenge, any program to where my experience and background would be more beneficial then to an established program like Hand (High School) or the Ansonia's. I wanted to go somewhere where I could marquee my background and experience and I landed at Lewis Mills last year."

Following Todd's resignation, Santana said he and the Mills staff got together to discuss the situation at hand.

"The rest of the staff was still in tact," Santana said. "Everyone started talking about who was going to be the next head coach. The rest of the staff said Coach Santana you have the most experience out of all of us you should become the next head coach, if you do we will stay on the board, support you, and back you up."

Lewis Mills' Coordinator of Athletics Dave Tanner said experience was key into hiring their new head coach.

"He (Jose Santana) had a good relationship with kids," Tanner said. "He was comfortable with the team and he demonstrated experience in the sport. With those qualities I thought he was a very good person to look at. For any situation you need to have experience and Jose

(Santana) has that going back to college and at Windsor (High School).

After a dreadful 0-10 season, Santana said he sees Lewis Mills football having a bright future.

"From last year to this upcoming year, last year I think we had a lack of experience at the varsity level," Santana said. "We had skill set kids but we didn't have experienced kids. Coming into this year we actually have 13 seniors, which is almost twice the amount of seniors we had last year. To be honest, I see ourselves winning several games to go either .500 or above."

With over two decades of experience, Santana has mastered the ability to connect with his players.

Tanner said many aspects go into being a good coach and Santana has them.

"Jose has knowledge of the game and the relationships he developed with the kids, if you put those two together plus some added energy its a good combination." Tanner said. "Jose is a motivated football coach, he has a good understanding of the game. It's not Lewis Mills football school, its Lewis Mills High school and Jose knows where athletics fit in the school."

Santana said he understands that if the work to get better is completed, the wins will come.

"I've had the philosophy that if you come to work, things will take care of themselves," Santana said. "Anytime I talk about football I don't talk about wins and losses. As long as we take care of everything we need to do during practices being able to come out to practice everyday, being competitive, giving 110% and taking care of things in the class room the wins will come."

Santana said he wants to implement a new mindset into the team after the results of last season.

"What happened last year is in the past, going forward, its going to be a new and different environment on football off the field as well as on, Santana said. "I think the kids got stagnate last year, the way the season was going, going 0-10, there was alot of not caring in the locker room, alot of giving up after the first quarter. Were going to have to change that mindset, we have to fight until the fourth quarter."

Coaching in college has allowed Santana to use some of those strategies in high school.

Santana said many schools go over two hours for their practices, he wants to makes sure their practices are limited so the players are fresher and ready to go the next day.

With such a new program, Tanner understands it will take time for the Spartans to make big waves in the state and promoting Santana is a step in the right direction.

"I think its a positive change for the sport as a whole," Tanner said. "We will have an increased interest and will be building up the program. It's long process, for a small school, the sport of football is a long term investment and will promote a positive experience.

Going into their first game, Santana and his Lewis Mills squad want teams to recognize that things will be different.

"I want everyone to know after that game that win or lose, Lewis Mills put up a fight, they were competitive, aggressive, and they played right to the last whistle, Santana said. "I think we will probably be overlooked because we were 0-10 last year so that might work in our favor. After the first game I want to change everyone's mentality on that one."